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Your personal vegan story

At another vegetarian message board, I saw a thread once where people wrote about their personal transition into becoming a vegetarian. Not just a line or two about why they decided to become veggies, but a small article about the whole process. Maybe I shouldn't suggest this until I've got time to write my own story, but I decided to post the idea while it was fresh (I know I stole it! )

How it happened

About 15 years ago, my wife and two daughters decided to become vegetarian. I fought it doggedly, threatening to cook my own meat, going out for fast food, etc. Eventually, because I am lazy, I gave in. When the three went total vegetarian, (vegan when it comes to ingesting) I fought again, insisting on my cheese. That lasted about a week or two--token protest. Now the two daughters are vegan. My wife and I are still total vegetarians, mainly because we have trouble finding belts and footwear to fit our bodies.

The task has been challenging but also rewarding. Upon reflection, I don't think I'd have it any other way.

In the 6th grade...

My teacher showed us a movie on the inside workings of a slaughterhouse. I was 11 years old and vowed never to eat animal flesh again. I was a vegetarian for many years and then 4 1/2 years ago I finally worked up the guts to find out that cheese and eggs are just as cruel as flesh. I've never touched the stuff since then.

Years ago I watched a movie called 'faces of death' .. went vegan the next day, lasted two years. I was not eating healthfully and I got sick, so I went off the diet, knowing full well I would return one day. That day was 3 weeks ago.

I went vegetarian about 2 years ago, attempting to cut back on calories. I didn't even take the animals into consideration and the ethical issues didn't cross my mind...yet.

Then I got bored with the foods I was eating, mostly "meat replacement" junk, so I bought a vegan cookbook. At the beginning of the cookbook was an explanation about the different cruel industries and reasons for going vegan. I cleaned out my refrigerator that night and haven't eaten animal products or byproducts since. A few months later, I went vegan in that I buy cruelty-free clothing and household items.

Really it was not until somewhat a month after I turned before I got really into it. Reading a book for 1975 Animal Liberation by Peter Singer. I was only in the beginning of the book and my perspective changed on it completly. A long dead friendship was even rekindled via the help of this new thing we had in common. Realisticlly I finally realized I was a part of a long standing prejudice, I had been an advocate for many things for a long while and just hadn't realized this one.

I decided to become vegetarian once and for all in 1996 (had tried it a couple of times, but didn't stick with it). A friend of mine and I made a pact that we would never eat meat again. After making the change, I started reading everything I could find on the internet about vegatarianism and veganism. After reading "Why Vegan?", I decided to go all the way and reject dairy and eggs as well. I stayed vegan for about 2 months before I decided it was "too hard" and went back to lacto-ovo. Living in Alabama where some people have actually argued to me that "the bible says that animals were put on the earth for us to eat" and "well, if we didn't eat 'em they'd overpopulate and take over" (jeeeeez...how crazy is that???) and having had various other ridiculously ignorant statements thrown at me, being vegetarian has been an ongoing adventure. Last week, I finally decided that I was being just as ignorant by continuing to eat products containing dairy and eggs. I have made a pact with myself that I will never eat another bite of food that is the result of suffering among voiceless, helpless creatures.

i grew up in wyoming. if there's a worst place to be vegan... i was not vegan in high school but i hung out with vegan straight-edge kids. they were the unhealthiest people ever. when i read "why vegan?" & told them i was becoming vegan, they said "DON'T DO IT, it sucks" & i tried it & it sucked. i was limited to eating what my parents bought & there was NO health food stores that i could persuade them to shop at.

I moved to new mexico to go to college & was living in the dorms & eating at a cafeteria. this is the scene of my second failure at going vegan. they did serve soymilk but that doesn't make up for a meal of sad, wilted salad veggies, white rice & french fries. after i got severe food poisoning from eating cheese there (EVERYONE i knew who ate meat/dairy there got food poisoning at one point), i moved out.

because i could buy my own food now, i started eating healthier, but i was still eating eggs & cheese. then i saw a used copy of "diet for a new america" in a bookstore & decided to pick it up because i remembered my vegan straight-edge friends raving about it. i read it, & that was it. i set a date, pigged out on green chile & pineapple pizza the night before & never looked back.

i found the switch easy because i had already gotten used to cooking all my own meals, & trying new vegetables & recipes was fun. i also found my grocery bills went waaay down even though i had also switched to organic produce. i feel so much better physically & i like food so much more than i ever did--i'll never go back.

Interestingly enough, I began going vegan before I ever made a conscious effort to. First, milk and eggs in their most obvious forms became very repulsive to me. Then, the change happened naturally where I stopped buying leather and other animal products.

One strange thing that happened about a year after I became vegan was that animals lost their fear of me. As I would walk through the woods, deer made no effort to escape me. In fact the would get in my way. I remember a mother deer leading a fawn right in front of me along with a herd. I remember a young stag glaring at me with his mate behind him. Deer can attack sometimes too. Dogs and cats of course were always friendly. Most birds ignored me. Crows would seek out my attention and one crow even landed on the same bench beside to me and stayed with me until I had to leave for class. House flies even allowed me to pick them up in my fingers to bring them outside.

I wondered if maybe without the smell of death emanating from my pores, I didn't smell like a human anymore. Maybe nature was encouraging me. Maybe it was my state of mind at the time. Or maybe semi-strange things happen to me on a regular basis.

Love the story John. I read a cow instead of crow, ha ha. I find myself talking to animals, no not like a nut. I, like you, also began going vegan without making a conscious effort, and not really knowing what vegan was.

Unfortunately, while there used to be huge flocks of crows where I live, now it is rare to even see one. I suppose West Nile Virus is responsible. I did a search on the internet to find some info on dwindling crow populations and instead the closest I got was a site about people who like to hunt crows.

Here's [i]my[/i] vegan story

My vegan story is not unlike many others. I was an omnivore for the first 21 years of my life (I'm 56 years old); when we married, my husband and I decided to try a vegetarian diet. We did some reading to make sure that we got our proper nutrition, and we made the transition with no problem.

After we divorced, I remained a vegetarian. I read Peter Singer's Animal Liberation, joined PETA and a couple of local animal rights groups, and was amazed to find that a vegan diet was possible, very nutritious, affordable, and convenient!

I went vegetarian about 6 years ago as I was eating in a restaurant called the Cheesecake factory, enjoying a shepard's pie and just stared at the mound of shredded poor cow muscle tissue and realized how could I eat this poor murdered cow when I love animals. I stopped eating meat then and there and gave up seafood within 6 months after that. I met my husband about a year after I became vegetarian. He was a dedicated carnivore, ate steak and 4 egg omelettes for breakfast. Over the years, I would read tidbits to him about the treatment of animals. He tried vegetarianism once and stopped after we had a fight and he ran straight for a hamburger. In 2001, I read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser and was horrified so I read out many,many bits to my husband who also became disgusted. That was enough to convert him to vegetarianism. Then in October 2002, he made the announcement that if he wasn't going to exploit animals for their flesh, he wasn't going to keep exploiting their unhatched chicks or milk so he went vegan and I followed within the next week or two. We've been happily vegan since. I gave birth to twins in April 2004 following a healthy, vegan pregnancy and we plan on raising our twins vegan as well.

I ws brought up omnivorous with a lare appetitie for meats, cheeses, and vegetables and fruit in almost euqal quantities i.e. huge amounts. I was highly active child skiing, horseriding, swimming skating gymnastics and I was happy.

Then in my teens my family moved for a 3rd time and i never settled in my new home - no one accepted me I was that strange foreign girl. I had few friends always the outcasts at school - I absorbed myself in my studies. My only other occupation was gymnastics a sport for which I had a passion - a sport which had taken over my life as I trained 15-17 hours a week besically whenever I was not at school. But although I loved the sport my new club was miserable for me - again the girls were never very close friends. After 3 years I couldnt take it anymoe and I made the heart-breaking decision to give it up.
Meanwhile I was deeple depressed as a lonely, bored teenager with no siblings and parents who thought she had turned out fine as a sensile intelligent your woman and needed little guidance so we never talked much. I had alot of presure to be the perfect daughter and only grandchil and only niece etc - not intentioanlly imposed by my family but self-imposed by me because of the great love they had for me and I for them. My depression became despair of ever beign happy again - I wanted to control my life so as to control happiness and to show everyone I was strong and had self-discipline and ot make mysel feel better about myself - I started dieting when I was 17. I quickly became anorexic. When I was 17 and a half I gave up gymnastics which was the only thing keeping me away from full-blown anorexia - after that point weight-loss was myonly non-academic occupation - it became a game and a goal-setting exercise and self-disciplinary exercise like gymnastics had been.
When I was 18 I started to admit to myself and some select friends that I had a problem. I though this meant I was cured but it did not. As an excuse to avoid my worse phobia - fats - I became vegetarian but I told myself if was because I wanted to be healthy and this was how I would cure myself. My parents wer eunhappy at first but got used to it and now they are not unsupportive and always helpful about being vegetarian but extremely anti-vegan. My parents nevernoticed that I was anorexic despite commentson my thinness from both sets of Gparents, my teachers, and a close family friend. It was only after the close family friend said I looked anorexic that my parents said I was too thin but they blamed vegetarianism. My Mum wanted me to quite being veggie as she is very omni but my Dad supported me by saying if it was wot i wanted that wa ok but I needed to modify my diet to be healthy again. His concern touched me but I was angry at being interefered with by my parents. I started to lie and decieve my parents so that they thought i was eating more than I really was.The weight kept disappearing and when I left home to go to uni there was no one to watch over wot i ate and my weight plummeted. I never looked as thin as I truly was - but I still looked very gaunt. Imagine not being able to sit in hard chairs, lean on a wall or lie on you rbed without your bones hurting you. Imagine being cold all the time even in the middle of summer unless there was no breeze and you are in direct sunlight. Imagine being so tired all the time you can barely lift your arms. Imagine wakig up in the night desperate for food - and between meals feelign faint, bad-tempred impatient, nautious and dizzy, with a pounding heart and sweating because you are so starving hungry... Once I left home I was happy - something I never htough possible - so in theory thre was no reason for me to continue living this life - but the problem was out of my control - i lived to kill myself - anorexia was my life.

At going on 19 I was anorexic and desperate for a cure. I neede to break away from it before it killed me but how? Vegetarianism far from improving the situation merely accelerated it. I had always wanted to be healthy and I had lost sight ot health - and then I bought a book called Guide to Optimum Nutrition and although not vegan all the positive things nutritionally speaking came from vegan things - a fact that was highlighted by the author. At the same time I discovered a vegetarian restaurant in town that was new and almost entirely vegan excet for dairy option of milk and ice cream and margarine. It showed me how tasty vegan food could be. Whenever I left that place I felt so good - I thought that if eating always made me feel this good then maybe a vegan diet was what I was looking for.

At the same time as changing diet, I changed my lifestyle - I became active again in lacrosse, swimming and working out in the gym. I felt so wonderful. From then on it was a matter of returning to a normal person.

Since December this year - 8 months after becoming vegan - I have set out on a new quest - Optimum health - this include fitness and nutritonal aspects of life. I am still a control-freak but food is one of my greatest sources of pleasure. I am a normal healthy weight, very fit and quite strong. I do get depressed and binge when I lose control of my life ie. when exercise is deprived me or I am forced by family out of veganism. Gradually a vegan diet evolved into a vegan lifestyle with the awareness of health and environmental and animal ethical issues of a complete vegan lifestyle. Ex - vegan and eco-friendly bath products have two-fold benefits - better for the skin and better for the animals and environment.

I feel at peace with myself and the world. I am happy and healthy partly due to being vegan and vegan partly due to being happy.

Congratulations on your success over the long battle with anorexia. Your story was interesting and I am glad you are still around to tell it. I, too, have struggled with a life-long battle with my weight but the opposite end, being overweight. I certainly did not become vegan to lose weight (it was always about the animals and environment) nor have I but I am probably the healthiest I've ever been and I know that I can lose if I just start exercising.

What Made You Become Vegan?

What made you become vegan? Was it some influence from some animal friends, or a bad experience with meat? With me, I had 10 chickens whom I loved to death, had birthday parties for, and everything. That's the reason I became veggie, and now vegan. So what about you all?

Last edited by Korn; Sep 27th, 2004 at 08:40 PM.
Reason: This was the first post in another thread about the same subject

I had been veggie for 13yrs, then read an article on chickens and how they were kept. I had been lactose intolerant for a while so even though I only having 1 or 2 eggs a week I was horrified that I could be partly responsible for what I saw. Never looked back happy now and at peace trying to convert the world.

I started as a veggie at the age of 11 we used to skateboard & go-kart around the back of what I later found out to be a slaughterhouse we used to hear noises of a strange nature in the buiding but took no notice late one summer 6 of us climbed on the roof and looked through a sky light to see what was going on in this buiding......

What I witnessed next turned my life around in an instant and another friend as well.....We witnessed a cow getting shot in the head with a captive bolt gun it was horriffic I hate to describe the other things we saw but I went straight home and said mum "I never want to eat meat again".

She respected that which was cool, in my late teens after being involved with animal rights and began to learn more about dairy / wool / clothing etc I just said thats it I need to change to veganism full time and as I had already been drinking soya milk from the age of 15 the only thing I needed to change was pizza....

I had been vegetarian for 5 years and read a small paragraph in a book about how calfs are removed from their mothers and how cows are kept pregnant all the time.
That was it for me! Even though I had always said that I would never become vegan, I became vegan right that second (even though I didn't realize until about an hour later).

I had the same experience as Wanda, the horror of a baby calf being seperated from his or her mother. I read about that in a book by Jeffery Mousad (spelling???) about the emotional lives of farm animals. I couldn't finish the book, I was so upset. I had tried to be a vegan before and had trouble. This time, its clicked.

It does have to click.
A few months after I had become vegan, I found out that the paragraph about dairy was also included in the older edition of the book. This meant that I had already read it a few years back. I was so shocked when I found out!
It does really help to understand other people though. The right information isn't enough. It also has to be the right time. It just has to click!

Speaking of it clicking! I went from being omni straight to vegan. It wasn't really b/c of anything I read at that moment. I had tried being veggie in high school but that only lasted a matter of weeks (if that). Veg*nism has always been what I fet was "right", but the "sacrifice" always held me back. I truly though ignorance was bliss when it came to what was on my plate. Then one day I was driving home from a bridal shower where I ate a bunch of dairy and meat items and it just clicked. I thought, 'I don't want to do this anymore. I'm going to try to be vegan.' I gave myself a deadline, which is actually about a month away. I said I'll be vegan for 3 mos. and then re-evaluate my situation to see if it's something I want to continue. I can't imagine going back. Sure I get frustrated at the lack of options at restaurants, but the idea of consuming any animal or its secretions grosses me out.
The short story is I became vegan b/c I didn't want to have to apologize to my food before eating it anymore!

I read about the latest news of a BSE outbreak in the US, and started reading about the gross underreporting of vCJD (variant Cretzfeld-Jacob Disease - the neurological degenerative disease caused in humans by consuming BSE). It turns out that (depending on the study you read) 2%-20% of all cases of Alzheimer's are actually vCJD. The average across all studies works out at ~12%. This means 5000 people die in the US each year from the effects of consuming the BSE-tainted flesh of murdered cows (or other animals). As Alzheimer's patients in the US don't have to be autopsied, this goes through completely under the radar.
Either way, this got me thinking about removing all cattle meat from my diet. Then I read that pigs are slaughtered too young to generally be able to discern the symptoms of any kind of spongiform encephalitis, and BSE can easily transfer to pigs, who do get fed remnants of cow carcasses. Some studies indicate that chickens are equally at risk. So, all in all, it seemed like a good enough reason to entirely quit eating meat.
I remembered from previous browsings that PETA had a loot of good information, so I read everything I could on their websites, and realised that the issue of my own health was negligible compared to the real issue of animal welfare. I also realised that ovo-lacto vegetarianism indicated a fundamental lack of understanding of the issues. So I went honey-vegetarian. It took me a few more months to get a proper understanding of the honey issue. Now I'm just finishing off what honey-including products we have remaining in the house that noone else will eat. Then I'll be free of that abuse, too.
When I started the reading of the PETA website, for the first week, I allowed myself things with milk-derived substances, but by the end of that week, I really couldn't face such things anymore. The mention of it "clicking" really makes my thoughts and actions at the time make sense.

So the whole journey started off with concern over my own health, but very quickly became entirely "for the animals" thing. I actually eat a lot of junk (lots of pita-bread with hummus, excess pistachios, chips with salsa, etc.), which really isn't helping my weightloss program any. But I am very careful not to be harming animals on the way. And I wouldn't have made it without a lot of helpful information from this forum, as well as a lot of clear, principled, unambiguous, and uncompromising opinions from members of this forum.
Thanks!

For me, oddly, it was finding out more about Vivisection that did it.
I had been veggie for years, but it was when I learned the shocking truth about how lab animals are treated that I felt I must reject anything involving animal exploitation.
I was a natural 'activist' waiting to be activated!!

I was veggie for 14 yrs, now vegan for nearly two, a natural progression, I suppose. I have always loved animals and have for many years felt guilty about eating them.
I am Animal rights now so the more you know about the abuse of farmed animals you then have no choice in the matter.

i saw the peta video "meet your meat" on december 16th 2003, and since then, ive been vegan. i went from being full meat eater to no animal products at all! (except the few mistakes i made while transitioning!)

I rejected meat as a child, well not fully, because my Mum would make me eat my chops, but I kicked up a big fuss. Back then, there were no real alternatives available and the knowledge that we have now, we didn't have then. It was considered 'unhealthy' to be a vegetarian.

But when I was 13, I realised that I could have more control over my diet and I became vegetarian. Tofu had just been discovered at this time, which was a bonus!!! But anyway, I was vegie on and off until around a year and a half ago. My bouts of meat eating in my teens occured through peer pressure - all my friends were eating McDonalds and I wanted to aswell. (There was no such thing as a vegie burger then either). They also teased me when I said I was 'vegetarian'. But when I was 18, I made the decision to become fully vegetarian. I was more mature and understood my decision.

At 19, my Mum died and I became anorexic - I wasn't eating anything, let alone meat and dairy!!!!

My re-feeding program included fish and eggs - they said it was healthy for me and I was made to eat it. I had read up the horrors of dairy industry and refused to eat it - so I was allowed soy milk (even though I hate soy milk) but had to have yoghurt. As soon as I was allowed, I gave up the yoghurt and the eggs too - but continued to eat fish.

I never called myself a vegetarian at this time though (I hate it when ppl do that)

Anyway, over a year ago now, I really thought about myself and my lifelong desire for an animal-friendly lifestyle that I ignored so many times as a teenager.

I needed to be myyself and comply with MY morals - I believed in veganism, but was afraid of being judged - being judged about my diet (as a means to control my weight) and being labelled a tree-hugging preaching activist.

I realised that I am not any of those and if I eat a nutritios, liberal vegan diet, I will prove to everyone that I am just being me - not anorexic.

So I have been vegan for over a year now after a lifetime of a rocky vegetarian lifestyle, I am a vegan for life!!!

What a story, banana! Impressive - Good on you. And may the support around you continue to grow.

My comparitively insignificant story:

I went straight from meat to vegan in one moment - about a year ago. I didn't watch any slaughterhouse footage, see a single picture of a non-human animal in strife, or know of a single vegan or vegetarian. It was entirely self motivated, from a niggling guilt deep inside (why do I need to kill? DO I need to? Maybe I should find out. But I don't have to. I'm normal according to society. Why should I hold my taste buds to ransom for a niggling guilt?) - so I decided, being the idealistic scrupulously ethical person that I try to be - to take an academic perspective, and I delved into Peter Singer's "Animal Liberation" and Carol Adams "Sexual Politics of Meat", then devoured "The animal ethics reader" (ed. armstrong and botzler) - all in one day. To the best of my knowledge, I haven't eaten an animal product since. I have worn out my boots, donated my wool to the more needy, and I've never been healthier. And although I'm not a fundamentalist, and assume that everyone will come to my opinion once reading these academic writings, I do get discouraged when people distance themselves from me the second they hear the "v word". ("He can't be right in the head!!")

But there you go. A cold turkey case. It was only in the days afterwards that I watched PetaTV and read animal welfare reports and activist journals that I knew I was never "going back", and I decided that I had to devote substantial clumps of my life to fighting for those without a voice in our materialistic masculine world. (And this puts me one step further into the "radical" basket, but I'm learning to manipulate my influence to maximum effect!)

I started reading 'Fast Food Nation' out of concern for my own health, and finished it shocked at the abuse of animals it detailed.
I was even more shocked at the fact that I had been ignorant for so long. How did I get to my twenties without even thinking about the food on my plate?
I became vegetarian soon after that, and about a month ago made the decision to become vegan. I think the trigger was when I found out that male baby chicks are killed when they are one day old. Before that, I thought that free range eggs were okay. If I eat eggs, I may as well be eating chicken too, and I have no desire to do that anymore!
I am still in transition to becoming vegan, so I have had a couple of slip ups. But even after such a short time, I know that this is what I am meant to be, it just seems right. Whoops, starting to sound like I have found a new religion now!

I lived in an anti-social familiy that believed in destroying others, classism/biggotry, rape/murder/hunting, and pretty much anything that made them feel dominant, even over fellow family members. Once I left home and rejected fundamental christianity and patriotism, as I had the freedom to do so without being threatened with physical and emotional violence in my home(I had rejected at heart as a child though), I was no longer surrounded by that mindset in such strong doses and I became a better person for it in many respects, one being vegetarianism. I only recently became vegan though, about two years ago. I think if I had a choice and had not been punished for being an individual as a child I would have done it much earlier. I did sneak veggie meals quite often when my parents weren't home. I guess that's how I got started on the idea that you can enjoy eating without murdering someone.

Until I got connected on internet, I did not know about Vegan life. I did not ever guess, how gross it is to use Animal milk and milk products. Other wise since birth I was lacto-veggie.

It is only after signing on Yahoo a/c. I came across one smart boy just 19 years old, Flashedmrg in Vegan/Vegetarian user Chat room under Health and Welness category. He impressed me right at that time. Immediately I decieded to stop drinking milk.Then slowly I cut all other milk products and other animal products like wool,silk,leather became full Vegan.

I always had an imense love for animals, but in my house, there was meat with every meal, and I didn't think too much about it. But then I met someone (who became one of my best friends) who was a vegetarian. I tried a couple times to stop eating meat but it lasted not even a week. But finally, just like you all said, it just "clicked". How could I love animals so much, and continue to eat them? What was the difference from the dogs I loved so dearly in my own home and the cows and pigs on my plate? There was none. So last year, the week before Thanksgiving I gave up all meat and seafood. It was really hard on thanksgiving, because everyone was eating turkey and stuff. I didn't have a desire to eat it, I was just very frustrated at the lack of options I had. Even the caseroles had beef broth and stuff in them. I also stopped eating eggs and drinking milk, but I still ate cheese and other things that had eggs and milk in them. Finally, about a month and a half ago, I realized that if I felt so strongly about animal rights, how could I continue to exploit them? I live in TN, and am very active in church, so I also got a lot of the "but God put the animals here for us to eat!", which made it very upsetting that a lot of the people I loved didn't support me. But I decided that I had to do what I felt was best. I realize that even though God put them here for our nourishment, he also gave us reign over them, and we are commanded to protect and watch over them. I believe that animals being tortured, fed antibiotics, and never seeing daylight is not what He intended for those voiceless creatures. So I did what I needed to do, and I'm so happy I have. I have no guilt about the things I'm eating, and I feel so much healthier. I've made mistakes since I became vegan, but this board and the people here are helping so much. Thanks!

I started reading 'Fast Food Nation' out of concern for my own health, and finished it shocked at the abuse of animals it detailed.
I was even more shocked at the fact that I had been ignorant for so long. How did I get to my twenties without even thinking about the food on my plate?
I became vegetarian soon after that, and about a month ago made the decision to become vegan. I think the trigger was when I found out that male baby chicks are killed when they are one day old. Before that, I thought that free range eggs were okay. If I eat eggs, I may as well be eating chicken too, and I have no desire to do that anymore!
I am still in transition to becoming vegan, so I have had a couple of slip ups. But even after such a short time, I know that this is what I am meant to be, it just seems right. Whoops, starting to sound like I have found a new religion now!

Cat, your story is similar to mine. That book was a catalyst for me as well. We made it into our 20's without thinking about the food on our plates, how many people never do? I don't remember where I read it, (it might have been in FFN, actually) but a scene that sticks with me is the author describing how male chicks are thrown into a wood chipper and then used, along with other "mulch", to fertilize the crops. The author says that while walking these fertilized fields, he/she saw chicks that, despite being "chipped" were still alive. Legless, or wingless, twitching and suffering on the ground. The absolute disregard for the life of a feeling creature made me sick. How can someone be so heartless as to throw as living thing into a grinder and then spread the suffering remains over the ground. It makes me feel ill, and slightly violent.
-JK

I became vegan after I got my wonderful dog - he made me much more sensitive to animal issues. Now he's a veggie too!. Go figure. It has been a year and we are both doing just fine. I think my dog does not mind at all as long as the food taste good!

I was vegetarian 27 years prior to becoming vegan, so it was not hard for me. My husband still eats meat, but he's very supportive when it comes to my philosophy and eating habits. I just hope that he will see the 'light'' one day and just quit meat. But if he never will that's ok too, because we generate so much love together.

Cat, your story is similar to mine. That book was a catalyst for me as well. We made it into our 20's without thinking about the food on our plates, how many people never do? I don't remember where I read it, (it might have been in FFN, actually) but a scene that sticks with me is the author describing how male chicks are thrown into a wood chipper and then used, along with other "mulch", to fertilize the crops. The author says that while walking these fertilized fields, he/she saw chicks that, despite being "chipped" were still alive. Legless, or wingless, twitching and suffering on the ground. The absolute disregard for the life of a feeling creature made me sick. How can someone be so heartless as to throw as living thing into a grinder and then spread the suffering remains over the ground. It makes me feel ill, and slightly violent.
-JK

That has to be one of the most horiffic things I have ever heard. I'm sure it wasn't in Fast Food Nation, I would definitely remember that.

I became vegan after realising the reason I felt good for being vegetarian were actually vegan reasons so that by becoming vegan I would feel even better. It was a way of guilt-free eating which was a major factor in overcoming my eating disorder, anorexia. That and exercise of course but I think most of the ppl who remember me will remember my fettish for sport.

I always felt bad about myself when I ate meat. I have never been particularly fond of it anyway. One day i realized that a big part of my problems with stress and anxiety had to do with the fact that I was behaving in a way that clashed with my core beliefs. So I ordered a starter kit from PETA and it came with a copy of meet your meat. It was never a question after that. I have absolutely no desire to eat the things I used to eat. My husband isn't vegan and he will eat pizza or something and say "Don't you want some. I know you do." but I can honestly say I don't. I just don't.

A little over a year ago I made the choice to start living an "off the grid"(or "freegan") lifestyle. That is, a life without money. When you live in this way, there are certain foods that are readily available to you, and certain foods that are not. Meat is not something that can easily be obtained for free(at least, not where I was). So I just sort of fell into a vegetartian diet as a habit.
At the time, I was planning to join up with a vegetarian free food organization called Food Not Bombs. I figured "Well, I might as well just go vegetarian so I fit in." And I did. For a couple of months I ate a vegetarian diet but I lacked any real convictions or strong feelings about animal rights.
Then one night while looking through the Food Not Bombs literature box(we give out free information as well as free food), I spotted "Why Vegan?" I read it, and I was horrified. Ever since then I have taken the issue of animal rights VERY seriously, perhaps more seriously than anything else.
Of course, after reading that pamphlet I HAD to go vegan. There was just no question. It took me MONTHS to give up dairy...but now the thought of putting something in my mouth that comes from an animal basically just disgusts me.

Of course, there really is no ethical basis for my veganism. Since I obtain all my food for free, I am not supporting factory farming no matter what I eat. But there is my health to consider of course. And like I said, animal products just nauseate me now.

I definitely hear you. On another forum I constantly hear people trying to defend the practice of murdering animals. This just makes me sick. I am not a violent person by nature, but I swear to GOD...when I hear people who hurt animals consciously and deliberately try to say they're doing nothing wrong, I have to take a couple of deep breaths to stop myself from breaking something.

I have been vegetarian for about five years, with a couple of lapses in tough times, and am now happily vegan.
I have always loved animals, and grew up around chickens. One day when I was six, my Dad brought home a dozen baby chicks, and I picked out the largest as my favourite and named it Lindsay after a friend of mine.
Lindsay turned out to be a rooster, and a dominant and assertive fellow at that. I have a childhood memory of coming home and finding Lindsay headless and hanging from the washing line. (Dad was a farm boy -say no more!) I remember running away weeping and hiding for as long as I could stand it. (This never lasted long - I can't stand being completely alone.)
My parents knew I was very upset, and that night over dinner, they teased me by telling me that we were eating "Kentucky Fried Lindsay".
I think they sewed the seeds then and there.
I was vegetarian from when I moved away from home to college, but their versions of vegetarian main meals (e.g. tinned spaghetti topped with cheese and then roasted) left me ill and undernourished. I lapsed back into being an omni for three years until after my wedding, when I was doing a lot of cooking and had the money and time to do it properly. (This was before I had even heard of PETA or John Robbins or any of the other wonderful resources out there.)
Since then (apart from a lapse during a rough period at the start of this year) I haven't looked back.
I hate the fact that I have lapsed a few times, and am determined never to do it again. I admire people who have the courage and devotion to stick with their convictions. Legends, all!

Re: Your personal vegan story

Veganism has been a natural progression for me. As I sought out the truth, veganism came along with it. Learning more about the truth became a passion in my life, as I uncovered lies that I had been fed since a very young age. Through observation, I noticed that the vegans that I came in contact with had some kind of distant awareness that I was very attracted to. They seemed to "get it". I noticed that the meat eaters I knew had a strange "i dont want to know" attitude, perhaps out of fear of what could be.

I have been on this path for a couple years, but recently went completely plant-based. Since my decision, I feel more clear, moreso than just within my body, but within my mind, and spirit. Now I understand what many mean by being "conscious." I notice things that I never would've noticed before. Beauty is all around me. Life is beautiful, in all forms. I feel a connection to so much more... to love... to peace... to truth. I truly believe this is a lifestyle that is of the elite.

Re: Your personal vegan story

People find my story a little funny.

My husband and I went to a local farm/zoo a few years ago. They have all kinds of "farm" animals and exotics, like tigers, camels, etc.

We were in the barn and I saw a little sign hanging over a large stall that said "Mikey the pig". I stood at the entrance of the stall and began calling out, "Hey Mikey, where are you...Come here Mikey," sort of joking around. Well, all of a sudden, this pig barreled around the corner, kicking hay in every direction, and stopped in front of me, lifting his head up to see me. I began petting him and he flopped over on his back, wanting me to pet his belly.

I stayed and played with him for at least a half an hour before visiting the ther animals, then returned to see Mikey once again before leaving.

The next morning, I was running late for work, so my hubby made me a bacon and egg sandwich to go. I took a bite while driving and all I could picture was Mikey.